The weight loss is not going as I would like, but I am determined to stick to my goals. I have been working hard at asking for support, and I'm not putting any false notions out there that "I've got this" because I don't. I know I've done it before and that leads me to believe I can do it again. Tiffanie is always there for me to lean on and I really appreciate that. Yesterday I emailed a friend that I admire, Becky has done amazing things with her life (you should check out her blog), she quickly replied and reminded me that this IS HARD! I broke down, which was so therapeutic. I have been trying to hold it all together and act like I can do all this, when the reality is that I can't do it all, all of the time. Sometimes I need help. That is a huge lesson for me. I am so grateful for my loving Heavenly Father that helps me through all of my struggles. I am grateful that to Him they are just as big a deal as they are to me.
I have been reading Daughters in My Kingdom. I just want to share a little something that I really enjoyed and could relate to. This is a quote from the daughter of Louise Y. Robison 7th Relief Society General President.
“When Mother went to President Grant’s office to be set apart, she felt sure he had been misinformed about her abilities, so she told him she’d be happy to do her best in whatever he asked her to do, but she wanted him to know that she had a limited education, and very little money and social position, and she was afraid she wouldn’t be the example that the women of the Relief Society would expect in a leader. She finished by saying ‘I’m just a humble woman!’ President Grant answered, ‘Sister Louizy, 85% of the women of our Church are humble women. We are calling you to be the leader of them."
I think she is awesome! I have loved reading this book, it is really giving me a love for Relief Society. It is an interesting calling to be Relief Society president, it is the most frightening calling I have ever had, but I also love it! The love that I feel for the sisters in my ward is overwhelming and I know that is because God loves them sooooooo much!
Friday, April 13, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
I have something to declare!
But I'm scared! Since I haven't blogged for over a year, no one will be looking here, so I feel safe, mostly.
First, mothers need to wake up to what is going on in this country and care about what is being taught to their children. I am not against public school, I am against people pawning off their God given right to educate their children. Public school is flawed, but parents should have a greater influence on what is taught to their children. One great way to increase their influence is to take what is taught at home and add their family values to those teachings. Just be aware, that's all.
Second, its time for me to step up and admit that I am seriously overweight. Obese even. My life has felt very out of my control. I have gained 50 pounds in the last year. I feel like I have been in survival mode. Now, a year later the house is still standing and my family is still here. Its time to take my health seriously. That is how I want to think of it, health, not weight not a number. Healthy living.
Third, I LOVED GENERAL CONFERENCE! I got more inspiration out of Conference this past weekend than I think I have ever in my life! I feel I was given inspiration about what my daily study should be. I am calling it my Daily Devotion; here it is:
1/2 hour scriptures
1/2 hour Daughters in My Kingdom
1/2 hour news
1/2 hour Making of America
1/2 hour exercise
Here goes the next chapter of my life. Fabulous by Forty!
First, mothers need to wake up to what is going on in this country and care about what is being taught to their children. I am not against public school, I am against people pawning off their God given right to educate their children. Public school is flawed, but parents should have a greater influence on what is taught to their children. One great way to increase their influence is to take what is taught at home and add their family values to those teachings. Just be aware, that's all.
Second, its time for me to step up and admit that I am seriously overweight. Obese even. My life has felt very out of my control. I have gained 50 pounds in the last year. I feel like I have been in survival mode. Now, a year later the house is still standing and my family is still here. Its time to take my health seriously. That is how I want to think of it, health, not weight not a number. Healthy living.
Third, I LOVED GENERAL CONFERENCE! I got more inspiration out of Conference this past weekend than I think I have ever in my life! I feel I was given inspiration about what my daily study should be. I am calling it my Daily Devotion; here it is:
1/2 hour scriptures
1/2 hour Daughters in My Kingdom
1/2 hour news
1/2 hour Making of America
1/2 hour exercise
Here goes the next chapter of my life. Fabulous by Forty!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Gathering Inspiration
This month a group of bloggers are writing for 31 days about things that they are passionate about. I have loved reading these blogs. You can check them out if you'd like by clicking on one of the top two buttons at the right, they are just two of many women that are writing. These women are writing about finances, decorating, photography, living simply, entertaining, enjoying Fall, and grace. Its like inspiration for the taking.
I haven't known what to write, because my thoughts are all over the place. I read something at this sight today that helped me put things into focus. This amazing woman is writing about 31 days of grace. I have spent the afternoon thinking about grace. I know that I need it, and want it in my life, I think we all do. But what really hit me today was how much I need to share grace. People are good, and everyone is trying to do good, more than good; we try to do the best we can. That is enough.
I haven't known what to write, because my thoughts are all over the place. I read something at this sight today that helped me put things into focus. This amazing woman is writing about 31 days of grace. I have spent the afternoon thinking about grace. I know that I need it, and want it in my life, I think we all do. But what really hit me today was how much I need to share grace. People are good, and everyone is trying to do good, more than good; we try to do the best we can. That is enough.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Living Joyfully within My Means
I have had this post bouncing around in my head, and I hope to that I can find the right words. This topic could be a series of posts for me, because it has been the focus of my life probably since I became an adult, but very intensely for the last couple of years.
I am learning the joy of providently living. It is not easy. There are two things I do when I am feeling stressed, the first is eat, and the second is shop. I am awesome at budgeting, meaning creating a budget. I keep track of everything I spend, writing it down in my checkbook register and adding it to my budget. Now, following that budget is a whole other issue. I have done hard things in my life; loose 108 pounds, check (yes, that was hard and its still a struggle to keep it off, but I did it), pull my kids out of public school to home school and face the stigma and judgment of others- again hard, but I did it. Follow my budget, now we are talking about something really hard.
Over the years I have come up with a lot of little tricks I use to "float" my money. So what the bank says and what I know to be real are two very different numbers. Well over the past couple of years I started to get real. I took an honest look at my debt and what needed to happen to start paying it off. I watched some great videos and used debt calculators at this site. Progress has been slow (which, honestly, frustrates me-I have realized I do have an issue with patience and wanting instant gratification) but the balances are getting smaller.
Here is the biggest lesson I have learned. More money isn't the answer. I wish it were, but it's not. The answer is a wise stewardship over money. In September I made a serious commitment to get back on track. The reality is a huge leap of faith. I have to trust that because the council to live providently comes from prophets of God that I will be guided in this trial. As I have tried to harder than ever to live frugally I have been blessed with inspiration.
Food is the area of the budget with the most flexibility. We have a freezer full of meat, and my storage room is stocked. So, we have been living primarily off of what is already in the house. The goal: not to go grocery shopping at all, live completely off of what we already have. That didn't work. We have needed a few runs to the grocery store. Here is what has happened. With careful planning I have been able to order from a local food co-op, a couponing trip, and bulk food order. I have been blessed with inspiration and energy to make meals at home, really cutting what we have spent on eating out.
I know this has been a long post so I'll end with a scripture that really touched me.
"...take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than rainment?
"For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." 3 Nephi 13:25, 32-33.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Keep Moving Forward- Happiness is this Right Here
About six months ago I started p90x with my sister, Tiffanie. It was painful and hard. To make ourselves feel better we started making fun of the teacher/creator of p90x Tony Horton. We now have a bunch of "Tonyism" that we say, things taken from the workout videos to motivate or maybe it was even just mindless stuff that Tony would say. One of those is "Happiness is this right here." Tony says it during a stretch at the end of a workout. Tiffanie and I started applying it to Diet Pepsi and cookies, and other related unhealthy things. The thing is I have found myself thinking it at other times lately; like when I'm spending time with my family and we are enjoying being together. I caught myself with this thought in my head, and realized that, Yes, happiness is This Hight here.
I've been working very hard lately at listening to the Holy Ghost. Trying to understand the will of my Heavenly Father for me. It has been hard, but I am learning so much. I have often felt a desire to write down the lessons I learn, because they are small lessons. I am a great believer in the scripture; "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass". I don't want to forget these small lessons, and I want to better recognize them. So I need to be writing them down. I have been trying to decide what to do with my blog, should I just delete it? Its mostly become a big bookmark for my favorite sites, I rarely write. The more thought and prayer I've put into writing about things and what to do with my blog, I've come to realize that I need to be writing those lessons here. I've been hesitant to do that because it may turn people off, but so few people read my blog, and these are my lessons that I want to write down for me, and possibly to share with future generations. So that is what I'm going to do.
Keep Moving Forward is the name of my blog for a reason. The reason is; that is all you can do. Keep Moving Forward. I struggle with so many things; my weight, money, parenting (which includes educating my children at home), my callings in Church. That I can get pretty hard on myself when I don't measure up to the standard that I feel I should. All I can do is Keep Moving Forward.
I hope you will join me on this journey I am on, its so much more fun with friends and people who care about you. I am making no promises about how often I will write, I am working toward at least once a week. The topics will be varied because that is life and the lessons are in everything, the goal is to see the lessons and decide how to apply them and enjoy the journey.
I've been working very hard lately at listening to the Holy Ghost. Trying to understand the will of my Heavenly Father for me. It has been hard, but I am learning so much. I have often felt a desire to write down the lessons I learn, because they are small lessons. I am a great believer in the scripture; "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass". I don't want to forget these small lessons, and I want to better recognize them. So I need to be writing them down. I have been trying to decide what to do with my blog, should I just delete it? Its mostly become a big bookmark for my favorite sites, I rarely write. The more thought and prayer I've put into writing about things and what to do with my blog, I've come to realize that I need to be writing those lessons here. I've been hesitant to do that because it may turn people off, but so few people read my blog, and these are my lessons that I want to write down for me, and possibly to share with future generations. So that is what I'm going to do.
Keep Moving Forward is the name of my blog for a reason. The reason is; that is all you can do. Keep Moving Forward. I struggle with so many things; my weight, money, parenting (which includes educating my children at home), my callings in Church. That I can get pretty hard on myself when I don't measure up to the standard that I feel I should. All I can do is Keep Moving Forward.
I hope you will join me on this journey I am on, its so much more fun with friends and people who care about you. I am making no promises about how often I will write, I am working toward at least once a week. The topics will be varied because that is life and the lessons are in everything, the goal is to see the lessons and decide how to apply them and enjoy the journey.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
New insight- cooking calms my nerves
I just realized today that cooking helps me relieve stress, although the previous post should have given me a clue. I know this is true for lots of people (Tiff loves to cook and makes brownies when she's stressed), but I never thought I was one of those people. I like to cook, and I have found the process of chopping vegetables to be therapeutic, something about taking a bunch of ingredients and making something wonderful. I also like being able to make a meal for my family that is really delicious.
A while ago Mandi led me to Our Best Bites,(see button to the left) they have such good recipes. They are all tried, and perfected, easy and so yummy. I have made lots of their recipes, but this week I have been obsessed. It started with making the Asian BBQ chicken, and then taking the leftovers to make pizza on the grill (which btw was easy and so fun). Friday morning Darren worked from home and I got up to look for a yummy breakfast, and made breakfast taquitos -so good! Plus, this summer I have become obsessed with wanting to own a small, counter top ice cream maker. Especially when OBB had a snickerdoodle ice cream recipe (I LOVE cinnamon, and really LOVE snickerdoodles). After searching my local Target, and Walmart for ice cream makers I turned to the internet and good old Amazon came through. My ice cream maker was set to be delivered on Thursday. I planned my whole day around it! I even made sugar cookies (our best bites, of course) to put in the ice cream. When I saw the UPS man leave without delivering my ice cream maker I wanted to eat a bag of M&Ms I was so upset. Lucky for my waist he came back, and ice cream making was back on. I made the custard, which had to cool overnight, put the ice cream freezer in the freezer, and I was set to make snickerdoodle ice cream Friday night. It did not disappoint- so good that when I woke up this morning I grabbed a spoon and headed for the freezer.
What does this have to do with stress relief? I'm getting to that. Since yesterday's ice cream was so good I decided I needed to try another flavor. I was torn between blueberry cheesecake and caramelized banana. I chose the banana because I have some bananas that need to be used.
Today we went shopping to get Shelby (and me) ready for girls camp. We only needed to buy a few things, but it was stressing me out. We still need to get her secret sister stuff. Plus, since I'm going too, and being the planner that I am, I've been trying to figure out: 1)what snacks I need to bring, so that I can eat healthy,2)what is the best way to get my trailer to girls camp, 3)Darren is coming for the first night as priesthood, so what does he need to bring, and 4)what do we do with Sarah while we're all gone. I finally have that all figured out, but when we got home from shopping I was feeling a little fried, so I decided to caramelize the bananas and get my custard for the ice cream chilling so I can make it tomorrow. That did the trick, totally helped me unwind. Who knew? I didn't have to eat a thing, just cook. That is a revelation.
A while ago Mandi led me to Our Best Bites,(see button to the left) they have such good recipes. They are all tried, and perfected, easy and so yummy. I have made lots of their recipes, but this week I have been obsessed. It started with making the Asian BBQ chicken, and then taking the leftovers to make pizza on the grill (which btw was easy and so fun). Friday morning Darren worked from home and I got up to look for a yummy breakfast, and made breakfast taquitos -so good! Plus, this summer I have become obsessed with wanting to own a small, counter top ice cream maker. Especially when OBB had a snickerdoodle ice cream recipe (I LOVE cinnamon, and really LOVE snickerdoodles). After searching my local Target, and Walmart for ice cream makers I turned to the internet and good old Amazon came through. My ice cream maker was set to be delivered on Thursday. I planned my whole day around it! I even made sugar cookies (our best bites, of course) to put in the ice cream. When I saw the UPS man leave without delivering my ice cream maker I wanted to eat a bag of M&Ms I was so upset. Lucky for my waist he came back, and ice cream making was back on. I made the custard, which had to cool overnight, put the ice cream freezer in the freezer, and I was set to make snickerdoodle ice cream Friday night. It did not disappoint- so good that when I woke up this morning I grabbed a spoon and headed for the freezer.
What does this have to do with stress relief? I'm getting to that. Since yesterday's ice cream was so good I decided I needed to try another flavor. I was torn between blueberry cheesecake and caramelized banana. I chose the banana because I have some bananas that need to be used.
Today we went shopping to get Shelby (and me) ready for girls camp. We only needed to buy a few things, but it was stressing me out. We still need to get her secret sister stuff. Plus, since I'm going too, and being the planner that I am, I've been trying to figure out: 1)what snacks I need to bring, so that I can eat healthy,2)what is the best way to get my trailer to girls camp, 3)Darren is coming for the first night as priesthood, so what does he need to bring, and 4)what do we do with Sarah while we're all gone. I finally have that all figured out, but when we got home from shopping I was feeling a little fried, so I decided to caramelize the bananas and get my custard for the ice cream chilling so I can make it tomorrow. That did the trick, totally helped me unwind. Who knew? I didn't have to eat a thing, just cook. That is a revelation.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
My house isn't clean, but I'm making cupcakes
So I am happy. Today I feel happy. It's been a bit of a rough week with my grandma passing. My bathrooms are clean, my bedroom is almost clean, and I'm sifting through the paper that seems to gather in piles around my house. Darren and I took Keno to get his shots today, and then decided to see if we could get him to the groomer as long as we were out and had him with us. The groomer(Scotty's K-9 design-who we love and is local in Saratoga Springs) could get him in today. I have an app on my phone that lets me check movie times, and we could get into a showing of Robin Hood, while Keno was getting groomed so we thought, "why not?". It was great to spend the day with Darren, and its great to put things back in order at home. Plus I got my hair done yesterday, and that is always a lift to my spirit.
I love my grandma, and I will miss her. I have realized this week what I have learned from her; mostly the value of running a home and doing it well. She did. I have also realized how much my family means to me. My parents are my rock, and I have leaned on them for support, and maybe they don't know that, but they have lifted me up this week. I have awesome brothers and sisters, and great cousins, and aunts and uncles that I want to keep in touch with and have them be a part of my life.
So mostly life is good. I really am living the dream when I stop and think about what I always wanted for my life and how things are working out. I owe that to a loving Heavenly Father. Thank you.
I love my grandma, and I will miss her. I have realized this week what I have learned from her; mostly the value of running a home and doing it well. She did. I have also realized how much my family means to me. My parents are my rock, and I have leaned on them for support, and maybe they don't know that, but they have lifted me up this week. I have awesome brothers and sisters, and great cousins, and aunts and uncles that I want to keep in touch with and have them be a part of my life.
So mostly life is good. I really am living the dream when I stop and think about what I always wanted for my life and how things are working out. I owe that to a loving Heavenly Father. Thank you.
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